The New Jersey Devils beat the New York Rangers for the third time this season on Tuesday night at Prudential Center 4-1, and it was the first time in four games that they scored more than one goal against Henrik Lundqvist. David Clarkson and Ryan Carter scored goals 1:54 apart early in the third period, breaking the 1-1 tie and giving Martin Brodeur enough offense to pick up his first win in his last six starts.

Ilya Kovalchuk opened the scoring with a breakaway goal 49 seconds after the opening face-off, capitalizing on multiple blunders by the Rangers in the neutral zone. First they turned the puck over while they were changing personnel sloppily, and then defenseman Ryan McDonagh slipped trying to defend against the speedy Kovalchuk, giving the sniper a clear path to the net. “They turned the puck over and Zach (Parise) made a great play,” said Kovalchuk in describing the goal. “They were in the middle of a change and I got a breakaway; this was a big goal for us.” His 26th goal of the season came on a snap shot, giving the Devils a 1-0 lead that they would hold onto until the second period.

Derek Stepan (4 pts. in 5 games) and Carl Hagelin (6 pts. in 5 games) continued to rack up points against New Jersey this season as they were the key components in the lone Rangers tally of the night. Hagelin’s pass from behind the net was tipped by Brodeur’s goal stick and the puck went right to Stepan who then fired a knuckling shot for his 16th goal of the season at 6:56.

Entering the third period 1-1, Clarkson netted the eventual game-winning goal 2:27 in, and he had no idea that he was the one that scored the goal initially. After another turnover by New York Clarkson carried the puck over the blue line and dropped it to Petr Sykora, who was playing in his 1,001st NHL game. Sykora let loose a slap shot that changed direction after nicking Clarkson’s leg and sailed past Lundqvist. “I had no idea (it was my goal) until I got off the ice and onto the bench,” said Clarkson after the game. “It was just one of those plays where I was going to the net, it bounces off of me and goes in. It’s one that I’ll take, but I had no idea it hit me until I got off the ice.”

Carter scored his first goal since November (37 games) 1:54 later when he converted a two-on-one with Jacob Josefson and fired a one-timer past the Blueshirts’ netminder.

The Rangers best chance to get back in the game came with just over eleven minutes left on a power play scramble in front of the net that was defused by the combination of Brodeur and defenseman Bryce Salvador. “I was part lucky on that play, and it hit the post,” Salvador told reporters after the game. “You have to give credit to Marty too, he made some big saves for us in the second period and gave us a chance to win.”

Patrik Elias finished the scoring when he potted his 22nd goal into an empty Rangers net with 1:53 left on the game clock, ensuring that New Jersey would take a 3-2 lead in the season series with their rivals (the final match-up of the regular season will be March 19 at MSG).

Game Notes: The NHL and New Jersey Devils each presented Sykora with gifts prior to the game in honor of his 1,000th game in Long Island on Sunday. Salvador assisted on Elias’ goal for his 100th career point (23g-77a); Stepan now has points in four consecutive games. Brandon Dubinsky only played 42 seconds and did not return to the ice after his first period fight with Carter. Kovalchuk led all skaters in ice-time with 23:38 and all players in shots on goal with 8; Dan Girardi led New York in ice-time with 23:09, while Stepan and McDonagh led their team with four shots on goal each. New Jersey (79 points, 6th in East) is off until Thursday when the host the New York Islanders (65 points, 13th in East) and the New York Rangers (91 points, 1st in East) will be in action that same night in Ottawa (76 points, 7th in East).

Playing against the best team in the Eastern Conference and trailing by a goal with under a minute to go in the game Tuesday night, the New Jersey Devils needed some puck-luck and found it when Andy Greene’s dump-in hit a partition in the Prudential Center glass and kicked out to a wide-open David Clarkson in the slot. He quickly snapped a shot past Martin Biron and tied the game against the New York Rangers 3-3 with 47.6 seconds left in the third period.”As a team we kept battling back, we were down and we battled back,” said Clarkson, “it’s good to see at this time of the season. For our first game back after the All-Star break, this was a good win.”

After a scoreless overtime, the Devils prevailed in the shootout as Ilya Kovalchuk scored the lone goal and Martin Brodeur stopped all three of New York’s shooters to even up the season series between the Hudson River Rivals (1-1).

The Rangers opened the scoring with less than a minute to play in the opening period when defenseman Anton Stralman collected a loose rebound and had an easy tap-in goal at the side of Brodeur’s net. Marian Gaborik (the All-Star Game MVP) fired the original shot that hit Devils’ blueliner Anton Volchenkov and then caromed off of Brodeur’s pad to a wide-open Stralman.

The Devils captain, Zach Parise, finally got his team on the board after his hard work and perseverance led to his 16th goal of the season 8:20 into the second period. On the scoring play Parise’s original shot was rebuffed by Biron but he slapped at the rebound — propelling the puck over Biron’s shoulder and under the crossbar. “I was trying to get the shot through and the rebound came right back to me,” he explained. “I didn’t know that it went in right away, it went in and came out pretty quickly. I wasn’t sure and then I heard the whistle and the crowd roared, so (laughs) I was pretty happy to get one.”

With the score still 1-1, Brian Boyle gave the Rangers a one-goal lead again when he cut across the slot with the puck on his stick and fired a high shot into the net past a Brodeur who had spun on his back with his legs up in the air. New York was able to maintain the 2-1 lead until Kovalchuk scored a power play goal at 15:25, but before the arena’s PA announcer could announce the goal the Rangers netted their third lead of the night 26 seconds later when Michael Del Zotto beat Brodeur with a shot that went right-to-left as the goalie slid left-to-right; Gaborik made a brilliant cross-ice backhand pass through three defenders on the scoring play.

That set up Clarkson to be the late-game hero, finding himself in the right place at the right time and hoping that he wouldn’t mess up the golden opportunity. “It was just one of those lucky bounces,” said a smiling Clarkson to reporters in the locker room after the game. “It kind of just landed right on my stick; I got a little nervous because I was like ‘How did this just happen?’ We played hard tonight, and Marty was unbelievable for us.”

Greene was happy to explain his part in the scoring play, returning to action after missing 22 games with a non-displaced toe fracture. “I was just trying to put it up and around the glass, but it’s not that easy to hit the right partition and pop out,” he said. When I asked if that’s what the coaching staff diagrammed he laughed and said, “Yeah, it’s like that Buffalo Wild Wings commercial with the field goal at the end of a game and the guy hits the sprinkler button.”

Parise was pleased with the team’s effort after a three game win-less skid and six days off, “We played hard, we played well; that’s a hard-working team and we matched them for the whole game and that’s how you have to beat them.”

In the shootout for New Jersey Kovalchuk went first and scored on a twisted wrist shot before Biron turned aside Parise and Patrik Elias’ attempts. Brodeur forced Derek Stepan’s shot wide of the goal and made a nice glove save on Brad Richards, setting up a showdown with Gaborik to determine if the game would continue or end. “He started so slow, I just kind of waited for him to do anything,” said Brodeur. “He started to go fast, I kind of went fast also (laughs); I tried to mimic him a little bit and it worked out — I was able to make a save on him.”

After dropping their three previous home games, this was a much-needed win for a team that will be battling for a playoff spot during the season’s final 33 games.

Game Notes: Rangers defenseman Dan Girardi led all skaters in ice-time with 33:46 and co-led his team in shots on goal with four (Boyle). Kovalchuk led the Devils in ice-time, 27:05, and led all players with five shots on goal. New Jersey defenseman Adam Larsson led all players with four blocked shots and Volchenkov led all players with five hits. New Jersey (27-19-3) is off until Thursday when they host Montreal (19-22-9) and New York (31-12-5) is back on the ice Wednesday night when they play in Buffalo (21-24-5).

Lately, when the New Jersey Devils play the New York Rangers it seems like groundhog’s day — what I mean by that is the script/recipe is always the same when the Rangers win, just like in their 4-1 victory over their Hudson Riverrivals at Prudential Center on Tuesday night. The Devils scored early, but only once — allowing the Rangers to hang around until they tied the game with a late second period goal. New Jersey then became less aggressive and it was exploited for two goals and an empty netter in the final twenty minutes to put the finishing touches on their first loss since December 10.

With Patrik Elias (flu) out of the Devils lineup Travis Zajac moved up to Elias’ second line center position between Dainius Zubrus and Petr Sykora and the move paid off early for coach Pete DeBoer. Zajac, who missed the first 30 games after achilles surgery scored his first goal of the season at 15:51, pouncing on a loose rebound that Sykora fanned atop the crease of Rangers netminder Henrik Lundqvist. “They really came out strong and put us back on our heels,” said New York’s Mike Rupp. “Hank was big for us tonight; you kind of take it for granted sometimes. You always ask your goalie to keep you in the game, give you a chance to win. That’s what he did tonight.”

The game stayed 1-0 until 17:28 into the second period when with the Rangers being out-shot 20-9 Artem Anisimov buried a pass from Derek Stepan past Martin Brodeur. On the play Anisimov scored his seventh of the season when he slipped between the Devils duo of Zach Parise and Kurtis Foster to collect the perfect pass.

The tie didn’t last long as Marian Gaborik collected a rebound alone at the side of the net and netted his 18th goal of the season 4:45 into the final period. Gaborik’s goal was the eventual game-winner, but the back-breaker was rookie Carl Hagelin’s shorthanded goal with 5:18 left in the period. Hagelin controlled a loose puck that got past Ilya Kovalchuk and fired a twisted wrist shot over Brodeur’s glove hand. Gaborik finished the scoring on an empty net goal with four seconds left, giving him 19 on the season — one away from the NHL leader Steven Stamkos.

“We were never able to get that second goal,” said a frustrated Parise afterwards. “I thought Lundqvist played really well tonight, he was definitely the difference.” Despite the loss the Devils captain like his team’s effort in the rivalry game, “No matter the outcome, I thought we played a good game; our effort was good, we played hard, had a great start. We were mentally ready and into it, we did a lot of things we wanted to do, we just weren’t able to get that second goal.”

Game Notes: Stepan had three assists, giving him five points/assists in seven career games against the Devils; Gaborik’s first goal was the 600th point of his career (302g-299a) and he has 18 points in 19 career games against the Devils. Zajac’s goal was the 250th point of his career (90g-160a). Rangers’ defenseman Dan Girardi led all skaters in ice-time with 29:09, while Kovalchuk led New Jersey with 27:04. Gaborik was +3, while Kovalchuk and Foster were each -3; New York captain Ryan Callahan led all players with four hits, while his teammate Ryan McDonagh led all players with five blocked shots. New Jersey (18-14-1) is off until Friday night when they host Washington (17-14-1) and New York (19-8-4) travels to play the NY Islanders on Thursday night.

In their 1st three games against the NY Rangers this season (all L’s), the Devils scored a total of two goals. On Thursday night with 4:56 left in the second period, New Jersey had three goals on the board at MSG and had sent their nemesis Henrik Lundqvist to a rare early shower.

Ilya Kovalchuk scored his 15th 1:04 into the match on a Kovalchukian shot that beat the Blueshirt netminder over his left shoulder; it wad the kind of shot that fans have been expecting since the Russian sniper was acquired by the Devils last February.

The 1-0 lead held up until 8:01 of the second period when Dainius Zubrus continued his recent hot play and beat Lundqvist with a hard shot that was assisted over the line by New York defenseman Dan Girardi. Seven minutes later Brian Rolston one-timed a shot from just inside the blue line over Lundqvist’s blocker side. Patrik Elias set up Rolston on the play, extending both of their point-streaks to a season-high seven games.

Just over a minute later Ryan Callahan scored for the Rangers, and Vinny Prospal (playing in his 1st game of the season) cut the Devils’ lead to one during a 5-on-3 early in the third period, but that would be as close as they would get. Martin Brodeur was sharp again for NJ and finished with 25 saves as his team climbed out of the NHL basement for the first time since three days before Christmas.

Talk of making the playoffs may still be a bit premature — they are still 18 points behind 8th place Atlanta, but they are trending in the right direction.

The New Jersey Devils found yet another way to lose at home — this time it was via the shutout — making matters worse it was against their most-hated rivals, the New York Rangers by a score of 3-0 on Friday night. Henrik Lundqvist made 33 saves for the Blueshirts before a sold-out crowd at the Prudential Center, the fifth time in his career that he has shutout the Devils over 32 games (20-7-5). New York’s Brandon Dubinsky scored two goals (including the game-winner) in the game giving him ten, which is surprisingly tied for the NHL lead through the first month of the season.

For New Jersey, they fell to 0-5-1 at home this year, which is a major factor in their gruesome 4-10-1 start to what appeared to be a promising season in September; they have scored an NHL-worst 25 goals this season. “We played hard. We competed hard; we just didn’t generate enough offense,” said Devils coach John MacLean, who may soon be on the hot seat. Once again the injury-bug hit the team as goalie Martin Brodeur (bruised elbow) and defenseman Colin White (flu) sat out the contest; one bright spot was the return of defenseman Anton Volchenkov who hadn’t played since game number two when his nose was broken blocking a shot in Washington.

Backup netminder Johan Hedberg played okay in the crease for the Devils, but the lack of offensive and defensive support didn’t help either as he surrendered three goals on only 20 Rangers’ shots, one in each period. Hedberg’s teammates took five penalties in the game and it was the second goal, a New York power play goal that really broke the back (and spirit) of the entire team.

Five seconds after the goalie made a nice glove save on Todd White’s shot from the deep slot, Brian Boyle deflected a long shot into the back of the net, staking New York to a 2-0 lead at intermission. “I just tried to stay in front (of the goalie) and put my stick in a spot,” Boyle explained after the game. “Danny (Girardi) shot right at my stick, I didn’t move my stick. Just a little redirection like that — even if he does save it he has no idea where the rebound is going. All around it was a great play by everybody; I just kind of stood there, and I got the goal, so it was nice.”

Dubinsky started and ended the Rock party for the Rangers — first opening the scoring with a rebound goal 7:35 into the game — and then notching a shorthanded goal 3:41 into the third period; ensuring the goal-starved Devils would be unable to catch up. Lundqvist made sure he was going to get his second shutout of the year when he snatched Travis Zajac’s wrist shot out of the air with 7:50 left in the game.

Game Notes: The Devils have now called up an eye-popping 11 players from their minor-league affiliate in Albany and the season is only 28 days old. Boyle, in his fourth NHL season, set a career-high with his fifth goal; he had four in each of the previous three seasons. The Rangers played without one of their best players — Ryan Callahan — who sat out because of soreness. Dubinsky led all players with six shots on goal; four Devils had four shots on goal each, including Stephen Gionta (younger brother of ex-Devil Brian Gionta) who was making his NHL debut…wearing the same number 14 that Brian wore. “It’s just a great honor to put that sweater on and go out there and play a game you’ve been playing your whole life and dreaming of,” said the 27-year-old Gionta. “It’s unfortunate we didn’t get the win.” Rangers’ defenseman Dan Girardi led all skaters in ice-time with 27:33, while Henrik Tallinder led New Jersey with 25:44. New Jersey (4-10-1) is off until Wednesday when they host Buffalo (3-9-2), while New York (7-5-1) returns to MSG to host St. Louis (7-1-2) on Sunday.

In honor of the kick-ass IronMan 2 movie, here are the 88 NHL players that played in all 82 of their teams games this past season.Quick Hits: Calgary had 7 players appear in every game, including defenseman Ian White (traded midseason from Toronto) who played in a league-high 83 games. Vancouver’s Henrik Sedin led all Iron Men in points with 112 and Toronto’s Colton Orr had the fewest points (six) among those who played in every game. Colorado was the only team that didn’t have at least one player suit up for all 82 games. Only three rookies survived to play in every game — NY Isles’ center John Tavares, Dallas winger Jamie Benn and Buffalo defenseman Tyler Myers.